Range and rangetop · Bellevue
Weak Flame on a Viking Range Grill Section
When the char-grill section of a Viking range in a Bellevue kitchen sears weakly or burns low, what we usually find is grease and carbon packed around its burner rather than a failing valve. Some drippings always get past the plates above it, and over months they can choke the flame. If a full clean-out changes nothing, Viking Repair Bellevue is on (425) 696-2636.
What we usually find
- Most often
Grease and carbon on the burner and the parts around it. When the flavor-generator plates and drip pan go uncleaned for a while, drippings bake on lower down and the flame loses its strength.
- Sometimes
The wrong mix of gas and air: an air shutter knocked out of setting, or a burner not sitting squarely on its orifice after an earlier repair. Both sit under the grill and are set by a technician.
- Rarely
The grill's own valve, or the gas reaching the whole range. If the surface burners look weak as well, the supply is the suspect, and that is for a technician or the gas utility to trace.
Which Viking ranges carry one
Viking has offered a char-grill on select Professional ranges, set beside the surface burners with its own knob; the 60-inch 5 Series with six burners, a grill and a griddle is one current example. Under a heavy porcelain-coated cast-iron grate sit slotted flavor-generator plates, then a drip pan, then the gas burner, and a drip tray below that.
Patchy, or weak everywhere
A grill that chars well in one area and barely marks another usually has ports blocked along part of its burner. One that burns low everywhere, even straight after a thorough clean, points at the gas and air reaching it.
During a power cut
Viking’s manual for its Professional ranges says the grill is not to be used at all during a power failure, with its knob left at off. It is lit electrically like the burners, and lighting it by hand is not an option.
Safe checks before you call
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Preheat it the way Viking says
Hood on first, grill knob to HI, then the five to ten minutes of preheat Viking's manual asks for before you judge the heat. Food laid on a half-warm grate can pass for a weak flame.
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Clean the grill stack once it is cold
With the grill fully cool, lift out the grate, the flavor-generator plates and the two-piece drip pan as your manual shows. Scrape off burned-on debris, and put each plate back the way it came out.
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Wipe the drip tray, leave the burner
Below the burner sits a drip tray that should hold very little; wipe out any grease there with a paper towel. Do not lift, scrape or adjust the burner itself or anything it rests on.
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Compare it with a surface burner
Light the burner next to the grill. If that flame looks full and blue while the grill stays feeble, the fault is in the grill; if both look weak, say so when you call.
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Stop and hand it over
If none of that changes what the Viking is doing, leave it there and ring Viking Repair Bellevue on (425) 696-2636. Tell us what you already tried; it narrows the visit before we set out.
Asked about this
Does the Viking char-grill need the hood running?
Viking's manual asks for the overhead ventilation to be switched on before the grill is lit, because grilling indoors makes smoke and the odd flare-up, which Viking calls normal as fat drips onto the plates. Keep it running while you cook. If the flame stays weak after a clean and a full preheat, ring Viking Repair Bellevue on (425) 696-2636.
Should the grill be left burning after cooking?
Viking suggests leaving the char-grill on for about ten minutes once you have finished, which makes the clean-up easier after it cools. Done routinely, with the plates and drip pan washed, it is the simplest way to keep the stack under the grate clean. For a flame that stays weak regardless, call Viking Repair Bellevue on (425) 696-2636.
